American Century Companies Inc. Acquires 84,207 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 20.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 504,987 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after acquiring an additional 84,207 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $19,230,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 4,767.8% during the 3rd quarter. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC now owns 11,933,126 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $595,702,000 after purchasing an additional 11,687,982 shares during the last quarter. Amundi raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 30.2% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 21,580,960 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $857,305,000 after acquiring an additional 5,001,531 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 142.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,279,517 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $162,964,000 after acquiring an additional 2,515,103 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 9.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 27,310,294 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,348,522,000 after acquiring an additional 2,366,187 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 136.0% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,635,724 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $81,655,000 after purchasing an additional 942,701 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of NYSE FCX opened at $38.36 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $55.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.74, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 2.42. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $33.98 and a fifty-two week high of $55.24. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $38.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.98.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 7.50%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.56%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 23.26%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Dbs Bank raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $40.00 to $48.00 in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Argus cut Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.04.

About Freeport-McMoRan

Freeport-McMoRan Inc engages in the mining of mineral properties in North America, South America, and Indonesia. It primarily explores for copper, gold, molybdenum, silver, and other metals. The company's assets include the Grasberg minerals district in Indonesia; Morenci, Bagdad, Safford, Sierrita, and Miami in Arizona; Chino and Tyrone in New Mexico; and Henderson and Climax in Colorado, North America, as well as Cerro Verde in Peru and El Abra in Chile.